Volume 1 - CH 1

Act 1-1: The Most Incompetent Person In This World

Fortress City Lamour is a mid-sized city with a population of around five thousand. It’s an extremely common city in the Holy Amelia Kingdom.

However, Lamour has one thing that cities in this world rarely possess. Many children born in this city had special gifts that represented the turning point of history.

Moreover, a few years ago, the Amelia kingdom was facing an unprecedented crisis because of the invasion of one of the four demon kings―Ashmedia. That event led the first princess and the saint of the Amelia kingdom, Rosemary Loto Amelia, to summon the Hero and the Sage. Moreover, the children born with Archmage, Spear King, and Sword Saint gifts all came from this city of Lamour.

And one of these people, the one with the Spear King gift, is my opponent for today’s mock combat.

「ORAORAORA, Can you see that!? INCOMPETENT!!!」

I just barely defended against the lunges of the wooden pole in a brown-haired youth. The pole was aiming for my head, chest, and abdomen. Moreover, even when I said “defending,” the youth only attacked with one hand as if to make fun of my powerlessness. Nevertheless, I did my best to dodge his attacks.

「You’re wrong, Roman. He’s not incompetent. He’s the most incompetent in this world!!」

The friend of that brown-haired youth called Roman, a handsome blonde-haired young man, jeered at me. It was followed by sneers from all the male students who were training in the dojo.

「ORAORAORA, CHANCE!」

Roman’s voice became even louder as he thrust his wooden pole toward my forehead. He easily knocked me out.

When I regained consciousness, I felt a stinging pain on my forehead along with a cold, comfortable hand on my cheek. I opened my eyes and saw a beautiful-haired girl looking at my face with a worried expression.

「Lyla?」

When I tried to move my head, I realized that we were under the shade of a tree in the corner of the mock combat arena. I heard the shouts of the students who were training in the dojo next to the arena.

「Kai, are you okay? You got hit pretty hard on your forehead.」

She asked me while waving her long blonde hair to the side. This girl is Lyla Hellner. We were once engaged, but our engagement was cancelled after her family learned that my gift was 【The Most Incompetent in This World】.

「Yeah, my forehead swelled a bit.」

Lyla, my childhood friend, took a closer look at my forehead. When I saw the huge, twin peaches hidden beneath her black training clothes coming closer and closer to me as she inspected my forehead, I felt the heat passing on my cheeks. I rose in a hurry, but I ended up touching the peaches a little bit since she was still checking on my forehead.

After I received 【The Most Incompetent in This World】, my physical strength has taken a nosedive. It doesn’t improve no matter how much physical training I do. Right now, I’m weaker than even untrained women and children. It’s the reality of my current situation. That’s why I’m really lucky that the mock battle only ended up with a little swelling on my forehead.

Lyla heaved a sigh and touched my forehead. She’s really worried about me.

「Are you really going to the Royal Capital?」

「Yeah, I almost have no reason to stay in this city anymore.」

Maybe since Lamour often gives birth to many excellent gift holders, the people who get trash gifts, like me, receive a cold treatment. It’s really tough since, in the Amelia kingdom, gifts decide your future. Gifts are everything. Whether you’re going to be a winner in life or a loser, your gift decides it all.

It seems my mother learned how I’m being treated in this city. She went as far as to order me to come to the royal capital.

「Then, are you going to look for a job in the royal capital?」

「It looks like my mother is planning to send me to study at the 【World Sorcery Institution (Babel)】. I mean, look, it’s a neutral city, and I have a bigger chance to find employment over there.」

The neutral academy city 【Babel】 is a huge academy city composed of several schools. Children of nobles from all over the world go to that academy. It’s a great place for learning even for someone with a trash gift like me. After all, even the tribe that isn’t blessed with gifts is also studying there.

「I see, Babel, huh…」

To my surprise, Lyla nodded upon hearing my answer. At first, she showed strong rejection upon knowing that she was going to be separated from Rena and me, her childhood friends. I guess she has already sorted out her feelings.

「I’ll send a letter once I’ve reached there.」

「That’s unnecessary. I mean―」

Even though it seemed she was about to say something more with a gentle smile, she suddenly shut her mouth.

「Well, I shall take my leave since I have to sort my luggage in my room. See you again, Kai.」

「Y-Yeah. See you later.」

I was quite puzzled due to the strange nuance in her parting words, but I still rose and raised my right hand.

Well then, let’s visit grandfather for my last greeting.

The moment I thought that—

「OI!」

As if to replace Lyla, who just left, Roman called out to me. He was not even trying to hide the hint of threat in his voice.

「Uhm? is something the matter?」

「I’m the gift holder of the Spear King!」

And here I thought that he had something else to say to me. It turned out to be just the usual.

「Yeah, I know that.」

「You’re no longer engaged with Lyla-san! I might come from a branch family, but I’m still a member of the Heineman family. I have the right to marry her. No, it’s not just me!」

Yes, Roman is my cousin. It seems he has had a huge crush on Lyla since a long time ago. That’s why he never tried to hide his sense of rivalry toward me, who was engaged to Lyla at that time.

Roman’s gift is the 【Spear King】. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that he’s one of this kingdom’s greatest future war potential. Naturally, it’s the same for Rena and Keith, and the Amelia kingdom’s government has arranged for them to receive proper combat training in the royal capital.

Roman had also received the same offer as them, but he refused and decided to keep training in Lamour. The government of Amelia kingdom had initially insisted he accept that offer, but when they realized that nothing could change his mind, they had approved his stay in Lamour as long as he didn’t neglect his training.

Maybe, the reason Roman refused the government’s offer is that Lyla also refused their offer, and he expects her to stay in Lamour.

「That’s for Lyla to decide.」

As soon as the Hellner family had cancelled Lyla’s engagement with me, Lyla had declared that she’d decide her husband on her own. It seems she was against the old custom of her family from the very beginning. Thus, she might’ve been using the cancellation of her engagement with me as a trigger to distance herself from her family.

「Quite confident, aren’t you? Do you really think that Lyla-san will choose an incompetent like you?」

「Nope. What I feel about her is different from what you feel about her. You’re just overly worrying about this matter.」

Lyla and I had been raised like siblings. I mean, even now, both of us are still fairly bewildered like the first time when we had learned that we were going to get married to each other.

「What’s that―」

「ROMAN, Don’t waste your time talking to that trash and go back to training!」

A burly man with cropped hair and split chin scolded Roman in a loud voice while sending a scornful look to me. He’s one of the dojo’s instructors―Shiga. People do change, huh. He always used to look at me with a kind expression until I received my gift.

「Instructor Shiga, you’re right. Why should we waste our precious time talking with that drop-out, incompetent human?」

The handsome, blonde-haired young man who stood beside instructor Shiga, Riku, admonished Roman while sneering at me.

「Dammit! I know it! Do you hear me, don’t approach Lyla-san anymore!」

After throwing that half-threatening remark, Roman trotted back to the dojo. I heaved a sigh, then went toward my grandfather’s room.

""

「Thank you very much for the kindness you’ve shown to me.」

When I straightened my posture after saying that, my grandfather apologized to me.

「Sorry, all my attempts to help you were crushed so thoroughly.」

「For what?」

「The matter of your engagement with Lyla, and the matter of your expulsion.」

「My relationship with Lyla is more like that between siblings. So I feel nothing wrong with the cancellation of our engagement. Moreover, it has always been my dream to visit Babel and the Royal Capital. That’s why I honestly don’t think I’m in the loss.」

It’s how I truly feel. I used to secretly dream of taking the hunter examination to become a hunter, then go to the capital of hunters, Babel. That’s why, for me, this expulsion is like a dream come true. Regarding the matter of my engagement with Lyla, she herself is most likely gonna use this chance for a change of pace.

「You can always come back whenever you want, you know!」

「No, I don’t belong to this place. I mea―」

「I said that you should at least come back once in a while!」

My grandfather yelled at me and left the room before I could even reply to him. His anger was only natural. I mean, he has always been raising me as the next head of the family ever since I was young. Even when I turned out to be a failure or an incompetent person lower than trash in other people’s eyes, his love for me as his grandson didn’t change even one bit.

I bowed again, feeling another deep sense of gratitude to my grandpa.